ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the insights made available through the multiple methods deployed in a large scale, team-based qualitative research project conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand on Facebook use. It investigates the convergence of young people's drinking cultures and their practices of online social networking and self-display. The chapter describes the established literature on social networking sites (SNS) and youth drinking, focusing on its key insights and limitations, and the relationship of both these factors to the types of methods deployed which tend to privilege analyzing user-generated content posted on profiles. It provides a methodological overview of our research design that focuses on how it was planned and implemented as we collected different strands of data. The chapter outlines the three major stages of data collection, the ethical issues raised, and the participants involved. It reassesses the drinking photo as a form of user-generated content.
